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General Social Survey Cumulative File, 1972-1986 (ICPSR 8609)

Principal Investigator(s):
Davis, James A.;
Smith, Tom W.

Summary:

The General Social Survey has been conducted by the National
Opinion Research Center annually since 1972 except for the years 1979
and 1981. The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research has prepared a
cumulative dataset which merges thirteen years of the General Social
Survey into a single file, with each year constituting a subfile. The
content of each year's survey changes slightly as some items are added
to or deleted from the interview schedule. The most notable addition to
the 1986 wave of the survey was a group of questions related to the
feminization of poverty. Respondents were asked if they had ever
received income from various governmental assistance programs or from
alimony or child support payments. Attitudes toward welfare were also
probed through agreement or disagreement with a series of statements
concerning the welfare system. On this same subject, factorial
vignettes were conducted in 1986 and are included as a supplemental
file to this collection. These vignettes, which describe hypothetical
situations presented in brief descriptive passages, required each
respondent to evaluate ten different sets of circumstances relating to
family life and the need for public assistance. Seven of the vignettes
related to the conditions of young families and three pertained to
older women. The respondent's task was to determine whether or not the
family's income should be augmented with government assistance. Each
record in the supplementary file contains all the choices made by a
single respondent to all ten vignettes.

The General Social Survey has been conducted by the National
Opinion Research Center annually since 1972 except for the years 1979
and 1981. The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research has prepared a
cumulative dataset which merges thirteen years of the General Social
Survey into a single file, with each year constituting a subfile. The
content of each year's survey changes slightly as some items are added
to or deleted from the interview schedule. The most notable addition to
the 1986 wave of the survey was a group of questions related to the
feminization of poverty. Respondents were asked if they had ever
received income from various governmental assistance programs or from
alimony or child support payments. Attitudes toward welfare were also
probed through agreement or disagreement with a series of statements
concerning the welfare system. On this same subject, factorial
vignettes were conducted in 1986 and are included as a supplemental
file to this collection. These vignettes, which describe hypothetical
situations presented in brief descriptive passages, required each
respondent to evaluate ten different sets of circumstances relating to
family life and the need for public assistance. Seven of the vignettes
related to the conditions of young families and three pertained to
older women. The respondent's task was to determine whether or not the
family's income should be augmented with government assistance. Each
record in the supplementary file contains all the choices made by a
single respondent to all ten vignettes.

Study Description

Citation

Davis, James A., and Tom W. Smith. GENERAL SOCIAL SURVEYS, 1972-1986: [CUMULATIVE FILE]. Chicago, IL: National Opinion Research Center [producer], 1986. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1987. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08609.v1

Universe:
Total noninstitutionalized English-speaking population of
the United States, 18 years of age or older.

Data Type(s):
survey data

Data Collection Notes:

1)This older version of the General Social Survey
Cumulative File is being retained because of the unique data available
in the Supplemental Vignette File. More recent cumulative data is made
available each year under a separate study number. 2)A block of 17
variables out of the 20 in the Vignette File is repeated 10 times per
record (respondent), once for each vignette.

Methodology

Sample:
Modified probability sample with quotas at block level in
1972-1974. One-half block quota and one-half full probability sample in
1975 and 1976. Full probability sample since 1977.